° The first Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival was in April 1991; it cost $2.4 million and attracted more than 20,000 listeners.

° Chick Corea performed a sold-out show at the State Theatre on May 2, 1991; Corea is returning this year for his third visit.

Irving S. Gilmore facts

° Died Jan. 17, 1986 at age 85.

° Graduated from Yale University in 1923 with a bachelor's degree in English; also studied piano there.

° After graduating from Yale, Gilmore went to New York and studied with pianist, teacher and author Ernest Hutcheson. He returned to Kalamazoo in 1925 to help manage the Gilmore Brothers Department Store.

° One of Gilmore's favorite stories comes from 1924, while he was studying piano with Hutcheson alongside George Gershwin. Gilmore was invited to Hutcheson's apartment for a performance by Gershwin, who was previewing a new piece. Gilmore was late to the event and did not have a seat. His only option was to lie beneath the piano as Gershwin played. Gershwin's premiere? "Rhapsody in Blue," which helped make the composer a household name.

KALAMAZOO -- Almost 30 years ago, Curtis Curtis-Smith and his wife, Kathryn, set eyes on a 9-foot Steinway piano and were smitten.

"It was an unusually fine instrument ... one of the best pianos I'd every played -- period," said Curtis Curtis-Smith, a music professor at Western Michigan University.
The piano, which had been rebuilt and was in excellent condition, was selling for $15,000. The couple thought they could come up with $5,000 and looked into getting a loan for the remaining amount. It was 1980, and the interest rate for that type of loan was about 20 percent, Curtis-Smith said. The couple sought other options. They put out feelers for low-interest loans from local music lovers with deep pockets but couldn't find the right fit.

One of their friends, Joyce Chaplin, at the time a familiar face in local music circles, suggested Irving S. Gilmore, a friend of hers. Curtis-Smith told Chaplin he didn't feel comfortable asking Gilmore, so she volunteered to talk to the local businessman. Chaplin called Gilmore on a Friday in September 1980 and told Gilmore the Curtis-Smiths were looking for a loan.

Curtis-Smith said Gilmore, who was known for his generosity, replied to Chaplin: "What's wrong? Is he too proud to take a gift?"

By that Monday, a check for $10,000 arrived in the Curtis-Smiths' mailbox. It's one of the stories about Gilmore's giving personality that still circulates around town.

"He was most unassuming, and I suspect all the pizzazz and publicity thanks to his great benefactory and philanthropy would embarrass him," Curtis-Smith said.

The couple still has the piano, now valued between $60,000 and $65,000, and a photocopy of Gilmore's check.

So how does the piano sound?

"It still sounds good, although now it could use a tuning," Curtis-Smith said.